The prior art embraces such phials in strip format, which are connected one to the next generally via sets of webs arranged in pairs and projecting from either side of each phial; a top set interconnects the caps or stoppers, whilst the phials themselves are interconnected by a set running down the middle of the strip.
The top webs are slender, and present ribs on either side of the uppermost edge, close to where injection occurs during the moulding process; each web also exhibits a pronounced reduction in cross section, halfway between and parallel to the axes of the two interconnected phials, providing a crease along which to separate one phial from the next in readiness for use. The web can either be snapped cleanly, or bent back and forth until weak enough to be pulled apart.
This conventional type of strip causes definite handling drawbacks in manufacture, namely, when dispensed empty from an initial supply bin, and during the subsequent filling, heat-sealing and packaging operations: on the one hand, the strips can become entangled and pile up, excluding any possibility whatever of automation and dictating the use of manual methods, the consequences of which are increased costs and substandard results; on the other hand, even where handling is smooth, the speed obtainable remains low with a strip of the type in question, which is rendered unstable by its tendency to bend when conveyed longitudinally in the usual upturned vertical position.
Accordingly, the prior art stands in need of marked improvement, in order to overcome such drawbacks.
It will be discerned from the foregoing that the requirement is for a heat-sealable plastic strip embodied in such a way that it will neither become entangled with and pile up on top of other strips, nor bend when conveyed and handled, even forcibly, during its passage through the various stations of a production line; this much achieved, the relative manufacturing operations can be fully automated, the strips moved around at high speed, and a fast, well-ordered and uninterrupted flow can be ensured between supply bin and final packaging.